Barry Odom Article

quote:

---

Barry Odom is not one for forcing ideas on his team, particularly when attempting the dangerous balancing act of building something as simple as confidence within a brow-beaten defense.

Confidence must develop organically, Arkansas' new defensive coordinator said. You don't simply yell, share year-long mottos and provide motivational messages to a team expecting nearly 100 players to change their psychological makeup. You plant seeds and you wait patiently to see if those ideas blossom into a team-wide philosophy.

First-year Arkansas coach Sam Pittman hired Odom to turn around Arkansas' defense, sure, but he also wanted someone who followed his ideals. Pittman inherited the worst SEC program over the last three years and understood he must start from the ground floor. He told every player they were important. He treated the fifth-team cornerback the same as starting quarterback Feleipe Franks.

Actions, not words.

One month into his first season, Arkansas is 2-2 and has an argument to be ranked nationally with a 3-1 record if not for a blown call by game officials in a loss at Auburn. Arkansas' offense under the guidance of Kendal Briles has improved since the comatose days of Chad Morris, who failed to win an SEC game in less than two years as head coach. The key, however, has been the Razorbacks' back-from-the-dead defense.

"There wasn't a lot of confidence in our abilities (last season)," defensive back Jalen Catalon said.

Arkansas (2-2) has provided SEC friends and foes the template on how to slow and defeat the wide-open offenses of Mississippi State and Ole Miss, while also playing sound football against the likes of top-5 Georgia and holding Auburn to only three touchdowns in what should have been a second road victory early in the season.

Odom was enticed to join Arkansas' staff just weeks after he lost his job as Missouri's head coach. The reason? Pittman. "I've known him for a long time, and he is as sincere and as real of a person as I've ever been around," Odom told 247Sports last week. "And that's hard to find in this line of work."

The game plans began coming together in January and February, when Odom wasn't familiar with Arkansas' personnel. He knew time would be needed to scheme for Mike Leach's Air Raid, a scheme the veteran coach has rarely faced in his career.

"I'm a simple learner," Odom said. "And I can't put together a game plan -- I mean, I can, but I'm better when I work way ahead."

In the meantime, Odom had to find building blocks. He had to do something different with this roster, which ranked as the worst Power 5 defense in the country in 2019 (124th nationally).

"We were very deliberate on teaching and cross-training guys at different positions, just because our depth is not very good, to be quite honest," Odom said. "And I thought there would be times throughout the course of this season, because of our depth or lack of, that the guys would have to play different spots."

Several stars have since emerged, but the same player is not dominating the box score each week. The stars change depending on the game, game plan, and the scheme. It's a design borne from necessity.

And so came the revolution and the natural growth of confidence. Players moved across the field in practices. They understood their assignments mentally after months of virtual-only meetings on Zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring and summer, and it translated well when the team finally returned to the practice field in August.

It was clear the defense was different in its season opener against Georgia. Open-field tackling had improved. Players crashed to the ball at full speed rather than being timid.

Arkansas led No. 4 Georgia 7-5 at halftime. The Hogs would lose 37-10 but the message was sent: this defense was different. They could force punts and they were surprisingly strong against the run, and even provided a glimpse of dominance with a goal-line stand.

A few weeks later, the Razorbacks did it again with two goal-line stands and seven (!) turnovers in a 33-21 victory against Ole Miss, a team that scored 48 a week earlier against No. 2 Alabama.

"You don't know if it's going to be play No. 7 or play No. 91 that determines the outcome of the game and look at those through fourth-down stops at, really, the inch-line and how huge that ended up being at the end of the day," Odom said. "That's more validation for the things that we're talking about. We play every snap as if it is its own game."

Meanwhile, do your best to define Odom's defense. What is the base scheme? There isn't one, and that has wreaked havoc against SEC opponents (25.5 points per game; No. 1 in turnover margin; No. 1 in interceptions).

"We can play multiple different defenses, we can have a whole new game plan that possibly you have or have not seen," Pittman said. "Basically it's what's the best way we can stop these guys -- and it's not necessarily a new blitz or slamming the line or twisting the line. It might be a whole new concept of going from a four-down to three-down look, playing zone the entire day, or let's blitz and play man-free (coverage). He's able to do that. He's diligent about his film study. And the kids believe in him because he's a great teacher and a great man."

Case in point: With depth an issue, Odom shifted more players before the Ole Miss game and walk-on Hudson Clark intercepted three passes against the Rebels, and did so with only one healthy arm. One day later he was told he will be placed on scholarship in January.

Arkansas is a proud program. It prides itself on being the lone football power in the state. It serves as both the state's college and NFL team. Its fans are as passionate as any in the SEC, even if it might be smaller than the blue-blood bases. They have witnessed success. They have advanced to the SEC Championship three times since the SEC expanded in 2002. They have a two-time Heisman Trophy runner-up in Darren McFadden. Not so long ago they were a darkhorse to contend for an SEC Championship under Bobby Petrino, whose pro-spread offense led the Hogs to a pair of double-digit win seasons before he crashed his motorcycle (and revealed an extramarital affair) and the program into a ditch on the winding Pig Trail known by locals as a scenic-but-dangerous side road connecting Fayetteville to the rest of the state.

Life here has been nothing but mostly frustration. It hit a new low in the final year of the Bret Bielema era and the two years of the Chad Morris error. The program suffered a winless conference season for the first time in its history. A 20-game losing streak in the SEC followed before Pittman and Odom took the controls.

"I'm excited about the progress that we've made, but, man, we've left a lot out there," Odom said. "And I think that we're just starting to scratch the surface on some of the things that we can do defensively."

Hope is back in the Arkansas locker room and it is spreading across the fan base.

"We had two or three years of terrible football," linebacker Hayden Henry said. "And now that things are clicking a little bit, we're playing better. I don't think that necessarily means that we're listening to social media more, I think we're definitely excited to get wins and it's nice to see people tweeting nicer things about you for sure. There's nothing worse than losing and you're getting freaking ripped on Twitter. I'll tell you that right now. It's terrible. So it is nicer to see people tweet good things at you.

"But I think everyone's still very hungry to keep proving people wrong."

---